Kline, 2K, and Judaism

A debate has broken out in the Reformed blogosphere over the 2-kingdoms view. Meredith Kline is the modern father of this movement.

I’m going to pose a question that I’ve never seen discussed in relation to his intellectual development. I wonder if Kline's Jewish background wasn't a factor in his radical church/state separatist ideology. He once told to me that as a boy, he attended synagogue with his dad. He seemed to indicate that his dad was a nominal Jews. Just going through the motions. But it’s possible that I misunderstood him. I’ve also read that his granddad was a pious Jew.

This raises the question of whether his Jewish upbringing may not have been an influential consideration in the formation of his views on Christian statecraft.

To my knowledge, Jews have a historical antipathy to state churches because they were often persecuted by the Christian establishment. And I don't think it's coincidental that church/state separatist outfits like the ACLU and People for the American Way have such a heavy Jewish representation.

I think many Jews harbor conscious or subconscious fears of "Christian theocracies." This is deeply ingrained. Something that conservative Jewish pundits like Michael Medved and Dennis Prager must constantly push up against. It's more emotional than intellectual.

I also suspect that's one reason so many Jews go into the field of law. That's a preemptive defensive maneuver.

Although Kline was a devout Christian, his political views may have been haunted by ancestral memories of anti-Semitic state churches. Historically, Jews faired poorly at the hands of Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Eastern Orthodox.

(Ironically, the Reformed tradition is exceptionally philo-Semitic by contrast.)